Although most people think governments should help people live the American Dream, a rising number of people see government as the main barrier to achieving it. In 2001, 34 percent of people thought that government programs did more to hinder than help them in achieving the American Dream. This year, 45 percent saw government as more of a hindrance than a helper.
Interestingly, limits on people's freedom was listed as a significant barrier to the American Dream by 10 percent of respondents, twice the number who cited the place they live as a major barrier.
When asked about the biggest problem in their local area, crime and crime-related problems such as drugs came in first by a wide margin. Among economic issues, unemployment was first, but cited by only 7 percent of people. Taxes were second, above health care, sprawl, poverty and the cost of living. Interestingly, terrorism didn't even register, and such hot-button issues as the environment, racism and declining morality were listed by just 1 percent of people.
The idea of an American Dream may seem corny or outmoded by elites, but it is something that still resonates powerfully with average people. Great leaders like Martin Luther King and Ronald Reagan understood this implicitly, which is a key reason why their words connected with the American people so deeply.
Though there are some who would like to turn the American Dream into just another welfare entitlement, Americans still understand the central insight of King, who explained in one of his great sermons that the American Dream is fundamentally about freedom and rights derived from God, not handouts from government: "It says that each of us has certain basic rights that are neither derived from or conferred by the state. ... They are God-given, gifts from His hands."
It is not often discussed, but a central difference between the Republican and Democratic parties is their differing concepts of the American Dream and its relationship to freedom. It is clear that the American people perceive this difference and have chosen their party loyalties partly on this basis. Increasingly, those who stand with Dr. King's vision now find themselves in the Republican Party.